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Classic Cars 50 Worst Cars of All Time
298 messages, Last post on May 11, 2009 at 1:53 PM
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Replying to: andys120 (Nov 20, 2008 11:56 am) Wikipedia claims 1973 for the Kadett C, 1974 for the Brazilian Chevette.
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Replying to: joshuag (Nov 20, 2008 12:18 pm) |
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without mentioning these>  I had one buddy who traded in his crappy Chevy Vega Wagon for...would you believe..a Dodge Aspen, both were stick-shift wagons. Did I mention he was very cheap. 
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Replying to: fintail (Nov 20, 2008 12:47 pm) |
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Replying to: andys120 (Nov 20, 2008 1:27 pm) I think this is one of those cars that's kinda like the 1980 GM X-body or the Vega...it seemed like a good idea at the time, but was just poorly executed and didn't hold up. If it had the quality to back it up, it would've been a decent car from the get-go. Also, this is probably more of a sad commentary on police cars at the time, moreso than a defense of the Aspen/Volare, but in 1979, believe it or not, these things were the quickest cars out there. With the 360-4bbl (which not all of them had...some just had 2-bbls or 318's), they'd do 0-60 in 8.7 seconds and 0-100 in something like 22.7. I found some police car tests from around 2003 or 2004, and those cars (Impala, Intrepid, Crown Vic) weren't even that fast!  Okay, I'll stop defending the thing now. I do like some of its offshoots though, like the 1980-83 Mirada/Cordoba and '81-83 Imperial. The M-body versions (LeBaron/Diplomat/Gran Fury/5th Ave) are pretty nice, too.
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Replying to: andre1969 (Nov 20, 2008 1:47 pm) In other "Worst Car" news, Zastava has ceased production of the Yugo after 30 years.
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Replying to: andys120 (Nov 20, 2008 1:52 pm) |
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Replying to: hpmctorque (Nov 19, 2008 8:03 pm) |
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| Another one to consider isn't simply the early Hyundai Excel - but the "Mitsubishi Precis" badged clone. When I was in high school the same friend of mine who had the gutless Bronco II had a Precis in his family. It was only a few years old then, and already unreliable. I remember this guy's mom had remarried, and my friend's stepdad was a bit older than usual - a WW2 vet no less, and when I nicknamed the car the "Zero" he got a laugh out of that. That car got claimed in a 30mph accident which completely destroyed the car, and it was replaced with a period Escort. | |
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Replying to: andys120 (Nov 20, 2008 1:52 pm) Having owned two Darts, I've often wondered the same thing. I remember an old comparison test done by some consumer magazine (not Consumer Reports, but something else, like Consumer Advocate or something?) where they tested the new crop of 1975 compacts. About the Dart, they said that it felt more like a well-preserved 1965 car than a brand-new 1975 car...but that wasn't a bad thing! I can't remember if the Dart won that comparison, but if it didn't, it still came in towarads the head of the pack. The only thing I can really think of is that by the mid-1970's, they were trying to make small cars handle and ride more like big cars, and maybe the Dart just couldn't do that? The Aspen/Volare had transverse-mounted torsion bars, which were supposed to isolate vibrations. They also started isolating the subframes from the cars in those days. Instead of having the subframe bolted directly to the structure of the car, they put these big, donut-sized rubber bushings in between. Years later, when those bushings go bad, it creates quite a driving experience, as the subrame, which carries the front suspension and the engine/transmission, sort of gets a mind of its own, and doesn't always handle quite in unison with the body! The Aspen/Volare were also wider than the Dart/Valiant. They had a wider rear track as well, but I think up front was about the same. Still, I wonder if they just opened up the rear wheel openings on the Dart/Valaint, if they couldn't just slip a wider rear under there? You can certainly put wider rims with more offset under there, which is sort of the same thing. Also, while they were wider on the outside, they weren't any wider inside...about 56" of shoulder room, which was about as wide as a compact got in those days. The Nova was about that, and I think the '78 Fairmont was as well. The Granada, Maverick, and Hornet were a bit narrower I think, more like 54-55". They might have had to make the cars wider though, to accommodate the more sloping windows. The Dart's actually did have a slight curve to them, but weren't that noticeable. I also wonder how hard it would have been to integrate proper 5 mph bumpers onto a Dart? They sort of skirted the issue by putting big rubber blocks on the bumpers, but I don't think they ever got around to using shock absorbers that would let the bumpers compress and then pop back out. Another issue with the Dart/Valiant is that the 2-door models were pillarless, and that might have been an issue when it came to rollover protection. GM actually eliminated all of its hardtop and convertible models from the 1973 midsized lineup in response to proposed government rollover standards, which ironically never materialized. I don't know how hard it would have been to just weld a B-pillar in there? The Duster/Demon/Dart Sport also lacked a B-pillar. They weren't true hardtops as the back windows flipped out rather than rolled down, but the column they were hinged on was just a thin chrome strip, and didn't provide any structural support. You can actually take it out and remove the window, and make the car look like a hardtop. I've also heard some people say that the '76 Aspen/Volare was essentially a heavily rebodied Dart, but I can't see how that could be true. Unless maybe some of the floorpan or rear subframe or something is still shared, or at least loosely related? It would be interesting to see how long the Dart would have been viable, if they kept it going with a major restyle, instead of replacing it with the Aspen/Volare? If they had, then I guess the LeBaron/Diplomat, Cordoba/Mirada, and even Imperial would have been based on it. Considering how quickly Chrysler was running out of money, I'm sure they still would have found a way to muff it up, somehow. |
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